NYMAG.com
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Nearly half of the nation’s Republicans believe John Podesta’s leaked emails contain coded messages referring to “pedophilia, human trafficking and satanic ritual abuse,” according to a new poll from The Economist and YouGov. But more shocking is the number of Dems who have signed on to the asinine conspiracy: Twenty four percent say Pizzagate is “definitely” or “probably” true.
The poll asked respondents to weigh in on a series of questions labeled “conspiracy theories,” including some classics (Was 9/11 an inside job?) and some of the tinfoil crowd’s more recent hits (Did millions of undocumented people vote in the election?). Answers broke down largely along party lines, but it’s the small percentage of weirdos who believe in the conspiracies aimed at their own side that’s always the most fascinating.
For example, it’s not shocking to learn that more than half of Republicans think President Obama was born in Kenya, which was throughly debunked years ago. But it is shocking to learn that 20 percent of Democrats think so, too. On the other side, it’s easy to believe that a full 50 percent of Clinton voters think Russia “tampered with vote tallies” to help elect Trump, despite a lack of evidence. But why would 9 percent of Trump voters believe the same thing?
Despite broad disagreements on politically relevant conspiracy theories, Democrats and Republicans did find an issue to unite them — vaccines and autism. The poll found that 28 percent of Democrats believe “vaccines have been shown to cause autism” and 29 percent of Republicans do, too.